Top Opinion

George Bush is brave: Embarking on a publicized HIV & AIDS safari through Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia on World AIDS Day?

Yes, the $15 billion President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) he began in office achieved some dazzling results – ten times more Africans are thought to be on anti-retrovirals now, than when the program began, and the fund helped set an incredibly high bench mark for giving. However, Bush’s HIV & AIDS work is far from being the untarnished legacy of his presidency, as he seems to believe.

In fact, George W’s conservatism cost lives. PEPFAR began with a heavy emphasis on abstinence: an approach based on faith, rather than evidence. In order to receive funding, programs had to stress abstaining from sex, to the detriment of other means of HIV prevention. Uganda was once the golden girl of HIV prevention, for dramatically reducing infection rates from 15 per cent in the early 1990s to 5 per cent in 2001, via a comprehensive, condom-inclusive approach. After an enforced abstinence focus, activists saw HIV rates increase.

George Bush is brave: Embarking on a publicized HIV & AIDS safari through Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia on World AIDS Day?

Yes, the $15 billion President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) he began in office achieved some dazzling results – ten times more Africans are thought to be on anti-retrovirals now, than when the program began, and the fund helped set an incredibly high bench mark for giving. However, Bush’s HIV & AIDS work is far from being the untarnished legacy of his presidency, as he seems to believe.

In fact, George W’s conservatism cost lives. PEPFAR began with a heavy emphasis on abstinence: an approach based on faith, rather than evidence. In order to receive funding, programs had to stress abstaining from sex, to the detriment of other means of HIV prevention. Uganda was once the golden girl of HIV prevention, for dramatically reducing infection rates from 15 per cent in the early 1990s to 5 per cent in 2001, via a comprehensive, condom-inclusive approach. After an enforced abstinence focus, activists saw HIV rates increase.

You are in trouble! The conservative line I've heard is the Seals and the military killed OBL and basically only under the premise that they would take the sword upon failure....this coming from completely uninformed sources who weren't there and have no sources for their view except that it seems a good spin on the event....

That's good. Don't hate the man because his pass. He did what he thought what was right for the country. How would we have reacted as President when all the different events happen under is his terms. Some things I agree with him on and some don't. Way to go former President Bush for what you're doing now.